Here’s gratitude for you
The Spectator this week led with a "Happy 60th Birthday, Israel" feature by Melanie Phillips. Perhaps there is nothing unusual about that, given that it repeats a whole load of the usual pro-Israeli claims...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Whole Foods and free speech
Been wondering recently why you can’t get The Ecologist in the Whole Foods shops in London? (These include the former Fresh & Wild stores.) The reason is apparently that the magazine printed a feature...
Secular Asians for Secular Democracy
Islamophobia Watch – Home – Stop pandering to Muslims says 'silent majority' Last week an outfit calling itself "British Muslims for Secular Democracy" had their big launch party, attended by Baroness Kishwer Falkner and...
The only white woman on the bus?
Brendan O'Neill interviews the British Nazi Party trying to win hearts and minds in Stanmore (with all the Jews!) and runs into a chick from Croydon bleating about how out of place she is...
Those Boris Johnson despises
Be very afraid: Zoe Williams on the possibility of Boris Johnson as mayor of London | Politics | The Guardian I know it's a bit late as the polling stations are about to close...
Who should have their say?
Are there some people we shouldn’t invite onto WHYS? « BBC World Have Your Say Ros Atkins (presenter of BBC World Have Your Say) on how she booked Ed Husain to appear on her...
Casual racism at British Airways exposed
'A world of casual racism' exposed at BA – Home News, UK – The Independent This was the front-page feature in the Independent yesterday: a former senior pilot with British Airways revealed that casual...
Yvonne Ridley wins case against Islam Channel
Harry's Place, a blog I read often but generally disagree with, posted this last week, about Yvonne Ridley winning a case for harassment, sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal against the Islam Channel. Since...
World War II myths justifying Iraq war
Peter Wilby, in last Friday’s Guardian, posted this article exploding some of the myths about World War II which are commonly used to justify the war in Iraq, particularly the last justification used after...
Don’t kill the fattened calf for Ed & co
An unusually perceptive Ziauddin Sardar finally delivers a dissenting view of the media's lionising of "Sir Edward Husain" and his clique in today's Guardian, on the grounds that it ignores those who always resisted...
What don’t people get about Ed Husain?
Technorati Tags: ed husain, andrew anthony, david edgar On Monday, the Guardian printed an abridgement of Andrew Anthony's response to David Edgar's piece in the Guardian Review about the recent fad for "defection literature",...
London election is not just about race
The recent issue of Red Pepper contains an editorial, written by Oscar Reyes, about the upcoming mayoral elections in London. Reyes notes that Boris Johnson, the Tory challenger for the position against Labour's Ken...
Government puts trust in moderate foreign imams
Smith invites moderate imams into UK to help Muslim communities fight extremism (from the Guardian) Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary, proposes to invite moderate foreign imams (from the Indian Subcontinent) in an apparent...
A13, trunk road to … where?
Wi-fi cameras to track drivers’ average speed | News (from Evening Standard) Today, the Evening Standard reported that a new wi-fi-based speed camera system is to be tried out along the A13, the main...
Racism or just commercial sense?
The other week, I prepared a post about the controversy caused by the singer Estelle, whose song was top of the UK singles charts a couple of weeks ago, alleging that the singers being...
Sister Ardo responds to “Blog Niqaab”
Sister Ardo from Ottawa (whom you may remember contributed to my coverage of the Jack Straw niqaab affair of 2006) has responded to sister Aaminah’s article on observing niqaab while interacting with others over...
The violent face of evangelical Anglicanism
New Statesman – Fundamental change This week's New Statesman has a feature on resurgent religion, particularly evangelical Anglicanism but also Catholicism, including a lengthy interview with the Bishop of Durham. The article I've featured...
The torch’s progress
So, the Olympic torch has made its brief visit to London over the weekend, with a trip across London from west (Wembley) to east (Stratford, where it passed by the 2012 building site) and...
Jury rejects conspiracy theories about Lady Diana
BBC NEWS: Princess Diana unlawfully killed An inquest jury in London has found that the late Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, and her lover Emad “Dodi” Fayed, son of Mohamed al-Fayed, was unlawfully killed...
Snow in April!
Well, it doesn't snow that often in England anyway, but snow in April is really unusual (though I've witnessed snow in Spring in the past, in the early 1990s when I was at boarding...